Shouldn't most of this stuff be in the King Kong will Bomb thread? I just want to talk about how Brokeback Mountain is making a killing.

Usually the thursday after a wednesday release suffers a 60% drop or so. This only suffered a 30%. That doesn't mean it's anything better for Universal. But we really shouldn't judge yet since the weekend hasn't even come yet.

I noticed the small drop as well. Every other Wednesday opening movie usually suffered a bigger drop the next day. I'm thinking (hoping) that Kong's 30% or so drop is a good sign for the weekend numbers.

Early FRIDAY BO figures from showbizdata.com:

Title Daily Total

KING KONG 14.4 30.4
NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, THE 9.0 90.2
FAMILY STONE 4.1 4.1
SYRIANA 1.6 18.5
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE 1.5 248.1
WALK THE LINE 1.0 79.9
YOURS, MINE & OURS 1.0 42.6
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN .7 1.7
JUST FRIENDS .7 28.1
AEON FLUX .5 22.0

Uh oh.

I hear you. And George Carlin was right. No one ever gets laid on Thanksgiving.

Ruh roh. Figure Saturday for about $17 - 20 million, and then Sunday for about $15, you've got only a $65 - $70 million 5 day opening. That's not good.

Unfortunately, the dissapointing figures for KK won't stop studio's from dumping loads of money on remakes.

remakes aren't the problem. This one just lacked something that stopped it from making full potential.

I agree with whoever said that they should have just tossed it as a friday release. I think that the amount it got spread out would have been centered on the weekend take in and I'm sure that the negative buzz it was getting after wednesdays low take in could potentially damage it.

Folks will see it and assume that it means it's not good just as much as if it was a terribly review of the film. It may pull out to have good legs. Who knows. But that's not what Universal would have wanted for this at all.

Remakes aren't the problem, it's the poor remakes we seem to generally get that are the problems. The same story is fine if the ride is different enough. KK was a damn entertaining one, that in it's own right is rare.

I just don't think there was a whole lot of demand for another movie about a giant ape.

Kong will have legs and stay atop the box office longer then other movies, there arent any big movies coming out anytime soon. plus holiday weekend next week, so i think it will do what it did this weekend next weekend too. Thats when i think more people will be seeing it. my whole family is going friday.

to me King Kong will stay around for a while because of word of mouth, reviews and its one of the movies that needs to be seen on the big screen.

Uh oh?????

Okay...if Kong drops 60% next weekend, then you can say "uh oh". But, why don't we wait first.

This was a great film. I don't think there's going to be negative buzz out there. Narnia is holding well with $9 million Friday...I'm sure that had something to do with the fact that Kong "only" made $14 million.

Kong did have an unusually enormous Thursday-to-Friday percentage increase (more than double what any of the LOTR films did). Hopefully that bodes well for long-term prospects and isn't just a fluke.

Is it possible that, as only two or three movies have had really massive opening weekends this year, we might be moving back to the old model? That is, quality movies earn their money over a longer period of play and big, wide openings followed by big drops are more typical of much-marketed bad movies. I wouldn't mind seeing that - the days when you could see a Batman or a Jurassic Park half a year after their release were nice.

i don't think this is correct. with an estimated $58 mil weekend and $87 mil 5-day, with all the hype and promotions out the wazoo. this is reall, really bad. i think the 3-hr runtime is the biggest detriment and people won't get past it to see it which is there and BO too bad.

if this was 2hr15min i guarantee it makes roughly $120 mil in the 1st 5 days.

I still think the DVD model is going to push strong. More folks will simply wait for DVDs regardless of quality of films in theatres and the market will flow that way with DVDs making more than the theatre run of a film

Not me, I want DVD's ASAP.

Just got back from a Saturday morning matinee - it was a huge auditorium theater and not including me and 3 of my friends there were... 10 other people in a theater that could easily fit over a thousand. Sure, a lot of people are out Christmas shopping, but stil...

Great movie though - I really bought the whole thing, especially Watt's interactions with Kong - seriously, give this girl an Oscar.

Also, I don't care what kind of HT set-up you have, this a movie that you HAVE to see projected from film, onto a big screen at least once.

Maybe the bad weather on the East coast had something to do with it?

Kong has legs. I agree with the poster above that it will likley get close to what it got this weekend -> next weekend. It is a great movie, a great blockbuster, and a great croud pleaser. I don't see this tanking at all. Disappointing with the $200mil budget?... probably... but it'll make it's money back for sure.

As for word of mouth... it's getting a lot more good than bad. And yeah what might hurt it is the talks of it tanking and it's underwhelming opening.

And I think the point made about more people waiting for DVD is simply not the case. Not with Kong at least. It's a big movie, people love to go out to big movies. Plus with the holiday weeks coming up, more and more people are willing to go out and catch a movie. The only movie I can picture Kong competing with is Narnia, which is also getting good word of mouth. Probably better for kids as well.

Now I don't see KK becoming a box office beast, but I wouldn't worry either. I saw it the Tuesday midnight show, loved it, and I still plan on seeing it agian.

It looks like the 5 day total will be around 60 million. Very disappointing for Universal, Jackson et al. I still don't think anyone's going to end up in the soup lines though.
KK will have some legs and will be huge on DVD.

Sorry, King Kong's legs will be short and hairy.

This whole thread reminds me of the Serenity thread a few months ago. Nobody want's to admit that Kong is flopping. Every excuse is being used to say why it isn't raking in the $$$.

I was going to say it reminds me of the Polar Express/Alexander/The Island/Batman Begins threads, where everybody wanted to declare them flops after the first weekend but then they ended up having long legs and/or doing well overseas.

I never said it was the problem with it's dissapointing boxoffice numbers, I'm just saying that it would be great if the studio's assumed it's the reason and will act accordingly. Afterall, the general public has no problems filling the seats for remakes, sequels and all types of crappy movies.

That's wishful thinking. This film will drop next weekend. It's not going to hold in it's second weekend and equal it's debut dollars. The question is how big of a drop.